Economics ofclimate adaptation forbiodiversity conservation (Ecoclimb)

Climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. For many species, existing habitats will lose some or all of their suitability, while habitat suitability in previously unsuitable regions (new climate space) will increase. Ecologists have developed two types of climate adaptation strategies to protect biodiversity: supporting migration opportunities to new climate space through appropriate land use measures and improving habitat quality in existing habitats to create climate refugia. Economic research on climate adaptation has so far largely ignored the threat to biodiversity.

Ecoclimb will conduct pioneering research in the emerging field of ‘Economics of Climate Adaptation for Biodiversity Conservation’. Ecoclimb will develop exemplary, methodologically innovative, dynamic, ecological-economic models to analyse how three important instruments of biodiversity conservation - incentive payments for nature conservation measures, compensation measures and land purchase for nature conservation purposes - can be designed with a view to ecological effectiveness and cost efficiency in the face of climate change. Approaches from ecological and economic research that deal with risk and uncertainty are identified, compared and integrated into the models. Ecoclimb will work in the example regions of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein with a focus on the protection of endangered grassland species.

Project staff:

• Project manager: Charlotte Gerling
• Dr Astrid Sturm

Website: www.b-tu.de/ecoclimb

Partner:

BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Lehrstuhl VWL, insbesondere Umweltökonomie
Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung UFZ, Department für Ökologische Systemanalyse
BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Lehrstuhl Umweltmeteorologie

Funding: BMBF (Ökonomie des Klimawandels), Zeitraum 2018-2020

The project ‘Economics of Climate Change - Topic Coordination: “Dealing with Climate Risks” (KlimaRisk)’ of the Chair of Economics, in particular Environmental Economics, coordinates the thematic focus ‘Dealing with Climate Risks’ in the dialogue on climate economics. The dialogue on environmental economics is the accompanying process to the BMBF funding priority Economics of Climate Change II.

The aim of the project is in particular to communicate findings from economic climate adaptation research to society and decision-makers in politics, business and associations and to promote dialogue between science and society.

At the centre of the thematic focus ‘Dealing with climate risks’ is research into the consequences and costs of climate change for the economy and society on the one hand, and the analysis of possible adaptation strategies to the effects of climate change on the other. Both areas are closely linked in terms of content. Further information can be found on the website of the Dialogue on Climate Economics.

Project leader: Professor Dr Frank Wätzold

Project manager: Dr Lutz Philip Hecker

Funding: BMBF (Economics of Climate Change), period 2019-2022

The project ‘The inclusion of trophic interactions in the optimisation of cost-efficient agri-environmental programmes for the protection of biodiversity in grasslands (TrophCost)’ of the Chair of Economics, in particular Environmental Economics, and the Chair of Ecology of the BTU is a project from the DFG priority programme Biodiversity Exploratories.

The aim of the project is to gain new insights into the cost-efficient design of agri-environmental programmes by combining ecological-economic modelling with data and information from the Biodiversity Exploratories. One focus is on the consideration of trophic interactions. Further information can be found on the DFG website (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/433016737?language=en).

Project leaders: Prof. Dr Klaus Birkhofer and Prof. Dr Frank Wätzold

Collaborators in the project:

• Dr Astrid Sturm

Co-creating a Decision Support Framework to Ensure Sustainable Fish Production in Europe under Climate Change (EU-Project Horizon 2020).

The overall goal of ClimeFish is to support sustainable fisheries, enable an increase in European aquaculture production, facilitate employment and regional development through effective forecasting, and develop management tools for adapting to climate change.

The ClimeFish project will:
• Help ensure that the increase in seafood production comes in areas and for species where there is a potential for sustainable growth, given the expected developments in climate
• Contribute to a precautionary approach to management of the fisheries
• Contribute to robust employment and sustainable development of rural and coastal communities

poject website
@climefish

press release
project fyler

SuLaMa: Participatory Research to Support Sustainable Land management on the Mahafaly Plateau in Southwestern Madagascar 

On the Mahafaly Plateau, like in many other developing countries, land-use decisions are driven by (short-term) economic considerations which result in non-sustainable forms of land-use like, e.g. slash-and-burn agriculture and over-harvesting of forest products. These non-sustainable forms of land use diminish the supply of ecosystem functions and ecosystem services, which are valuable for the local land users and on a global scale. Economic development and the provision of ecosystem services could go hand in hand if local land users in Madagascar were adequately rewarded for land use that provides ecosystem services. Against this background the economic work package in the interdisciplinary SuLaMa project has the following aims: (1) Development of a cost-effective and locally accepted "payments for ecosystem services" (PES) scheme which rewards land users for the provision of ecosystem services in close collaboration with local stakeholders.(2) Analysis of the existing organisations and institutions in the study region in terms of their potential for institutional change to implement a PES scheme. (3) An economic analysis of farm/household decisions in order to (i) understand the drivers and motivation of the current behaviour of land users and (ii) to evaluate the economic effects of proposed measures for more sustainable land use. 
 SuLaMa Homepage

The Naturschutzstiftung Heidekreis participates together with partners from science, agriculture, environmental NGOs and administration in an 3 year project funded by the Deutschen Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) . Goal of the project is the protection and enhancement of grasslands in the area of the Allerniederung in the Saxonian Heidekreis. Within this project the software DSS-Ecopay will be used to select and specify biodiversity enhancing grassland measure as well as support the selection process of the fields where the measures are to take place.

Project website

SOKO Bio: Software-based decision support tool for determining cost-effective compensation payments for conservation measures in a changing environment
In order to stimulate biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, programmes have been developed (e.g. in the context of agri-environmental schemes) with which farmers are compensated for carrying out agricultural activities in a biodiversity-enhancing manner. An important requirement for the design of such programmes is that they are cost-effective, i.e. that for existing financial resources the conservation output is maximised. The aim of the SOKO Bio project is to develop a software-based decision support tool based on an ecological-economic modelling procedure to design cost-effective compensation payments for measures to conserve endangered grassland species in the German Federal States of Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. The software shall be able to (I) estimate the effects of selected measures on endangered grassland species in the two federal states for varying budgets, (II) estimate the cost-effectiveness of existing or planned compensation programmes and (III) define management objective functions (e.g. survival probability of various selected species) and maximise them for selected budgets.
SOKO Bio Homepage

CASPER: Cost-effectiveness of Agri-environment Schemes for Biodiversity Protection and Ecosystem Service Restoration

In the CASPER project, a software tool (Ecopay, developed in the SOKO Bio project) to design cost-effective payments to compensate farmers for measures to conserve endangered species in grasslands is applied in three regions in Flanders, Belgium. The project is carried out in cooperation with the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) and the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO). The software is adapted to the specific conditions of the region and the necessary regional data are integrated in the software.

EcoTRADE: Market-based instruments for cost-effective biodiversity conservation

The European cultural landscape is witnessing an increasing conflict between demands for economic development and needs for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. A sustainable strategy is therefore crucial to accommodate for the needs of present and future generations. The EcoTRADE project examined the applicability and impacts of tradable permits as an instrument for a flexible biodiversity management (also often referred to as conservation banking). Research in EcoTRADE was carried out in an interdisciplinary group of ecologists, economists and modellers. EcoTRADE was one of the projects in the EuroDIVERSITY programme of the European Science Foundation (ESF), and was funded by the Dutch and German Science Organisations (NWO and DFG) for the period 2006-2009.
EcoTRADE Homepage